Playlist for Macbeth

This is my playlist for the character of Macbeth.  http://open.spotify.com/user/1219810017/playlist/4D1I8z06jdFGCicwBLcVSQ
1. "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King
     This song talks about wanting to be king so badly.  All  Macbeth wants is to become king.  He goes so far for it that he is willing to commit murder.  His one goal in his life is to become king. 
2. "Losing My Mind (Feelin' Fine)" by Mal Gibson
     Macbeth begins to crack after the murder of Banquo.  He sees Banquo's ghost and his grasp on reality begins to break.  LadyMacbeth and he pretend everything is fine at the party.  This song talks about losing your mind but feeling just fine about it. 
3. "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay
    As Macbeth become king, the people that were loyal to him before begin to smell something fishy going on.  They start to lose their faith in him.  Banquo loses his faith in Macabeth, thinking he has something to do with Duncan's murder.  This song is about the same thing happening. 
4. "Be Prepared" from The Lion King
     This song is about a group of people getting ready to murder a king.  Macbeth gets himself ready to murder Duncan, and he does. 
5.  "Dark Side" by Kelly Clarkson
      Macbeth proves that no matter how good you look on the outside, like a loyal solider and friend, everyone has a dark side.  The song is about finding out that everyone has a dark side and wondering what your dark side.  Macbeth goes through this same thing. 
6. "Lost in my Mind" by The Head and the Heart
    Macbeth begins to lose his mind after he murders Banquo and sees his ghost.  This song is all about losing of mind within yourself.  Macbeth's mind channels all of the guilt he feels for the murder he has committed into the ghost. 
7. "Guilty as Charged" by Chairlift
     Banquo believes that Macbeth has done something with Duncan's murder.  He alludes to this fact when he has a conversation with Macbeth.  This conversation ultimately leads to Banquo's death.  Anyway, Macbeth is guilty, just as Banquo suspects.  This song talks about being guilty just as someone else says you are. 
8. "Can't Sleep" by Adrian Lux
    This song is about not being able to sleep even through it is night time.  After he murders Duncan, Macbeth has an extremely hard time sleeping.  He has nightmares about what he has done. 
9. "Best of You" by Foo Fighters
     Banquo's ghost makes a fool out of Macbeth at his own dinner party/feast.  This display causes the people that believed and supported Macbeth to rethink.  This song is about someone doing the same thing.  Someone gets the best of you.  They outsmart you and make you look foolish. 
10. "Desperately Wanting" by Better than Ezra
     This song is about wanting something so much that nothing else matters.  They don't think about anything until what they want is theirs.  Macbeth doesn't think about the consequences of what he does when he murders Duncun.  All that matters at that moment is being King.  That is the thing he wants so desperately that he does anything and everything to get it.

Powerful Women with Femininity

The role of women in power is as advanced as it ever has been.  More and more women are taking over areas of work that have long been considered “men’s work”.  They are becoming doctors and lawyers and CEO’s of companies.  We even had a women run for president.  Back even to the seventies, women were still fighting for things like equal pay and job opportunity.  Along the way, we have seen many women display leadership in a time when it was not commonly accepted.  Lady Macbeth shows us that women have the same potential as men.  Of course the leadership she was showing was planning a murder and bossing her husband around by doing, but she was strong enough.  Lady Macbeth was the brains behind the operation of the murder of Duncan.  This is a good example of how powerful women got their plans and an idea through before it was socially acceptable for them to voice it themselves.  Even though Lady Macbeth was the one who planned the murder and made sure it went off without a hitch, who do we remember as the murder of Duncan? MACBETH!  This is partly because Macbeth believed she wouldn’t have been able to complete the murder because she was too much of a woman.  Her feelings would get in the way.  Even Lady Macbeth believes that.  She asks the God to “unsex her” so she can be more manly in order to murder Duncan.  Due to women feeling more confident and the evolving opinions of people, many power women have been able to assume positions of power.  One example is Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.  She is also the longest-serving British prime minister of the twentieth century.  She is often referred to as the “Iron Lady” for her firm opposition to the Soviet Union.  A film based on her life released this year.  She faced many hardships in order to gain her position of power.  People hated her, a woman, being in charge of the country.  One clip from the movie has her in a room full of men and she says “Now gentlemen, shall we join the ladies”.  This is a prime example of sexism showing that in order from women to be in power, they must be tough and manly.  Many women are already tough, and being tough doesn’t necessarily make you a good leader.  Compassion and empathy are two very important emotions to think of when one is in a position of leadership.  A gruff, no- mercy man may not lead a group of people as well as a tough, but compassionate woman.  Women are not free cannons with their emotions either.  They don’t go around screaming or crying all the time.  They don’t stop an entire parade of people because a cute puppy is sitting in the road.  Assuming that in order for women to lead, they must act like men is a ridiculous assumption.  Women are just as powerful as men and the world should start to acknowledge that.  Who knows, in not giving women a chance to assume positions of power, they could be losing some unforgettable leaders.  

Bystanders Should Make a Difference

The topic of people being innocent or guilty by association is a difficult question to answer.  There are many different definitions of makes a person guilty.  In the article, it talks about the “ordinary Germans” during the Holocaust.  These were the people who were not Nazis and knew what was happening and let it happen.  Dr. Victor Capesius was one of them.  He was recruited to be a doctor at a Concentration camp.  He did not necessarily believe in the Nazi cause, but was intimidated into submission.  When he saw his former Jewish patients coming off the trains, he simply went along with orders and sent them marching to their deaths.  Although he was not the one coming up with the direct order to commit the murder, he was just as guilty as the Hitler.  This article gives a new insight into many of the consciences of the character of Macbeth.  For the murder of Banquo in Act 3, Macbeth has three servants commit the murder for him.  Those servants are just as responsible for the murder as Macbeth.  First off, they were the ones that actually committed the murder.  They had the dagger that ended his life.  Macbeth, ultimately, should be the guiltiest because he planned the murder and theoretically killed him, among others. 

                Another aspect of this issue is the bystanders who know about the injustice, but do nothing.  This was an issue in the Holocaust.  There were many “ordinary Germans” who knew about the concentration camps, but simply chose to stay silent and continue to let those people suffer.  In Macbeth, one bystander is Lady Macbeth.  Although she plans the murder of Duncan, she doesn’t plan Banquo’s murder, but does nothing to stop it from happening.  In both senses, those people owed it to the victims, to humanity, and to themselves to speak up and put a stop to something horrible happening or continuing to happen.  The bystanders are guilty, but not in the same sense as the murders or bad people.  They are guilty of not having the courage to take a stand, no matter the consequences.  The innocent people who didn’t ask for these problems to be thrust upon them do have a duty report injustices.  People can combat evil and maintain their convictions.  Murder or wrong doing is never the answer in combating anyone’s so called evil.  Many people think something is evil that is not evil at all.  Hitler thought the Jews were evil and Macbeth thought that Duncan and Banquo were evil but they weren’t.  Real evils, though, can be defeated through more human ways, such as people doing the right thing because they are motivated to or people changing their habits because someone helped them see the error of their ways.  The world would be a much better place if the innocent bystanders stopped being afraid and stood up for the injustices that they have seen happen in their lives.  These people have the potential to change what will happen in the world, just as some person must have done it for the Holocaust and hopefully, as the play progresses, someone does it for Macbeth.